Henry Samuel is the Telegraph's France correspondent and has been living and working in the country for 12 years.

Sarkozy's rainbow government drained

The colour is fast draining out of Nicolas Sarkozyâ€™s ethnically and politically diverse â€œrainbowâ€ government.

Facing the guillotine is Rama Yade, Franceâ€™s feisty 31-year old human rights minister and until a few days ago a rising star in a cabinet hand-picked by President Nicolas Sarkozy. Last year, she was hailed as an icon of ethnic diversity, with Sarko dubbing his only black minister Franceâ€™s Condoleezza Rice.

Yadeâ€™s dramatic fall from grace is down to hubris. The President wanted her to leave the government to run in European parliamentary elections in June, but on Sunday, she went on air to categorically reject what amounted to a presidential order, saying: "I am more motivated by a national mandate than a European mandate." And that was that.

Her immediate boss, Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister, stuck the knife in saying that â€œI was wrong to ask (Sarkozy) for a secretary of state for human rights. It was a mistake.â€ The disavowal is a double hammer blow for Yade, with both her function and political career heading for the wall.

Among its two other ethnic minority members, justice minister Rachida Dati â€“ who has succeeded in uniting all of Franceâ€™s judicial establishment against her â€“ has fallen from grace and is unlikely to survive a reshuffle. Only Fadela Amara, the urban affairs minister of Algerian descent appears likely to stay put.

The political colours of his government are also looking less rainbow-like, with Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the left-wing Europe minister stepping down at the end of the year. He stands to be replaced by Bruno Le Maire, former aide to Sarkoâ€™s arch-enemy, Dominique de Villepin, the former prime minister. Sarkozy would no doubt say that taking on Villepinâ€™s former chef de cabinet (private secretary), even if he is from the Right, is the ultimate sign of political openness.